The present invention relates to a heater for use in a room of a dwelling, having a convection surface and in the case, for example, of a hot water heater, a water tank provided with an inlet opening and an outlet opening.
Many embodiments of such heaters are known, for example, as plate heaters or as ribbed radiators, each of which has a considerable radiation surface, In addition, heaters which are optimized with respect to the transmission of heat by convection are also known. They consist, for instance, of fin-like sheet-metal elements which are located closely alongside of each other and are, for instance, arranged in a row on a pipe which passes axially through said sheet-metal elements.
Furthermore, heaters for night storage heating are also known in which a heat storage medium, generally a stone body of high thermal capacitance, is heated during the night by, for instance, electric energy and then gives off heat throughout the day to the room which is to be heated by radiation and convection.
In the case of these known heaters, there can be noted either only a small heat capacity or discomfort as a result of high storage temperatures. In said night storage heaters, the temperature of the heat storage furthermore decreases with increasing liberation of heat. While initially, at high temperatures, there may also, for instance, be a burning of dust and the giving off of odors, this system passes only for a comparatively short period of time through a condition in which heat which is found comfortable is given off.
A certain "tiled stove effect" is sought in the case of such heaters. Heat is to be given off continuously by radiation and convection from surfaces which do not have too high a temperature. Even when there is no further feeding of energy to the heater, as a result, for instance, of the reduction at night in the case of central heating systems, a release of heat which does not drop below the limit of comfort is to be given off still for a certain period of time. This applies in the same way to a temporary priority switching of the heating system to the heating of hot water.
In water heating systems this cannot be obtained due to the fact that the heat-storage capacity is, as a rule, slight. In modern heating systems, the heat storage capacity is particularly low as a result of very small filling volumes. It has also already been proposed to hang in front of heaters ceramic tiles which have a certain, although to be sure slight capacity. They, it is true, provide a certain improvement but they are by far not satisfactory.